


Stanuary 2018 prompts

by Vulpixen



Series: Gravity Falls writings [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mr and Mrs Mystery, Angst and Feels, F/M, Family Fluff, Filbrick Pines Is A Jerk, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 18:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13464525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vulpixen/pseuds/Vulpixen
Summary: A life of ups and downs for Stanley when he reflects on himself and the family he made of his own.





	1. Story Time (Con)

Stan grins over to his six-year old twin children, Jessie and James, about to teach them the ways in the art of the con artist through a story he often told. He sits on a chair in between their respective beds inside the RV they’ve been raised in since the twin’s infancy. Having the decent size vehicle parked at a campground in Tennessee. It was common place for Stan and his small family not to remain in a state for too long, but once James and Jessie had to start school, they had to make adjustments for the sake of their education.

 

Carla watches over from nearby with a small amused smile, always enjoying to see her husband tell their children stories or teaching them some valuable lessons, even if on the morally grey side. He was both a good and bad influence. Carla does admit she’s a little like her husband, finding thrill in the moment where risk and reward were involved.

 

Stan clears his throat as he tells his kids, calling them by their respective nicknames: “Lil’ Sixer” for James and “Firecracker” he calls Jessie in parental affection for both of them, “Alright, Lil’ Sixer and Firecracker, ready to hear one of your old man’s stories?”

 

“Yeah! Story time, story time!” the twins cheerily exclaim in unison from their beds. The two always loved how enthusiastic and expressive their dad gets while telling the tales.

 

Stan delightfully chuckles, seeing how excited they’re getting, “Alright, alright. Let me tell you a story about a con artist and how he came to be the very best in the land of…uh... Coin-topia! Yeah, let’s go with that.” Jessie was at the edge of her bed as she listens to her father spin the tale. “There once was a man named Hal Forrester, a young likable guy to his friends and family, putting on a friendly face despite his living situation was in the dumps. Literally! He never had a lot of money in his whole life and was envious of the rich pockets that never bat an eye his way on the streets. The rich, fat coin purses lived in the high estates, lording over their wealth while letting those with low income suffer and die. In order to survive in a cruel world, Hal needed to rely on his wits and silver tongue -- which was really made of silver.”

 

The twins giggled a bit as James asks his dad, “What does Hal do to get money?”

 

“Tell us!” Jessie playfully demands.

 

Stan chuckles using a flashlight to do hand puppets with, “I’m gettin’ to that part. Hal got some of his friends and family members involved to pull of a great scheme. A high risk with great rewards.They were gonna con the head honcho himself, Old Bigwig, the richest phat cat in Coin-topia. So here’s what they did…”

 

Stan had his children captivated, enthralled by the tale that was enhanced by their father’s improvising, creating exciting scenarios where the story took many twist and turns. There were moments where the kids roared with laughter. The young man taking pride that it wasn’t just Carla who loves hearing his stories.

 

Stan gets to the end of the story as he tells them something profound, “Ya see kids, if you two ever finds yourselves in a messy spot and low on cash, use your wits when you need ‘em most to survive in our own messed up world of ours. Okay? Why your pops tends to con when funds are low….”

 

Carla frowns at the mention of her husband conning people out of their money, but understanding when cash gets tight every now and then.

 

“And it ain’t stealing when you’re taking something back what they stole from you,” Carla shared with a small smile, placing kisses on her kid’s foreheads.

 

“Okay!” Jessie squealed, taking her dad’s advice to heart, even if it may not be the best option, “I wanna help make money too!”

 

Stan pats his daughter’s brunette head, feeling touched that she wants to help, “Hehe. You don’t have to, Firecracker. But I’ll teach you and your bro how to con and pickpocket tomorrow. Small stuff for now. It’s time to go to sleep, my little gremlins.” He hugs both his twins, the two returning the gesture. James, however, was reluctant to rest.

 

“Aw…” James pouts with a crestfallen face, lying that he wasn’t feeling tired, “but I’m not tired.” The blush on his face telling Carla and Stan he was fibbing. Jessie acknowledging when she points.

 

“Lies!” Jessie laughs in her bed.

 

James sticks his tongue out at his sister, making a, “Leeehhh!” sound.

 

Stan chuckles a tad, “Now, Lil’ Sixer, careful with that tongue showing, she may just bop you in the mouth. Not nice to do if ya ain’t bein’ playful.”

 

James retracts his tongue back in his mouth, knowing his sister hits hard and doesn’t want to be on the receiving end in their spats on accident, “Yes, Daddy.”

 

Jessie grins in satisfaction, having been called, “slugger” on more than one occasion for not taking crap from any kid that tries anything to be mean to her and James.

 

“Everyone needs sleep, sweetie. Your dad and myself need it too,” Carla tells her son, tucking him in as he lies down with a yawn. “See?” Carla giggled, “You’re definitely tired.”

 

Saying their goodnights and the twins drifting off to sleep in their beds, Stan and Carla turned off the lights and head off to bed themselves. The two may not be perfect parents, but Stan and Carla do their best to raise their kids to help them thrive, along with loving and supporting them unconditionally, while trying to make sure they know how to fight back in a world where people are going to harm them one way or another. The best they can do was try. Whatever’s out there -- in some other plane of existence -- knows Stanley and Carla try. Stan never wants to be the man his father was to him; telling himself silently as he curls up next to Carla in their own shared bed.


	2. Caught Red-Handed (Trouble)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stanley catches his kids in trouble and does something about it.

_ At the Mystery Shack in 1984. _

  
  


All the twins had to do was not cause trouble. Was it too hard to ask of them? Stan glowers at the mess made in the attraction room, his and Carla’s “Love-Dove” display having be wrecked when red doves having once formed a heart now in two halves. Didn’t help that the scene gave him flashbacks of all the times him and Stanford screwed around in their dad’s pawn shop, having broken a thing or two in play time without thinking.

 

“Alright, kids. Which one of ya busted the “Love-Dove” attraction and tried to glue it back together? The day before Valentines Day no less. Just wanna know who,” Stanley asks of his twins, James and Jessie Pines, holding up the broken halves of the red feathered stuffed doves, the halves having some glue on it, but not enough to put it back the way it was. Carla, standing next to her husband with her hands to her hip and a furrow brow. Jessie and James both looking guilty as charge while blush made their cheeks rosy, shuffling their feet where they stand. Their brown hairs having specks of glue from bickering earlier and fighting over it. Around the corner, a young Shifty, Sheldon and Shelby were snickering out of their twin cousins expense. 

 

“Well?” Carla raised her brow.  

 

Jessie goes first and shifts blame onto her twin, “James suggested we try to improve the display by putting crowns on their heads.”

 

“What?!” James retorts his twin sister, “That was your idea! And it was you who dropped it!”

 

“Slander!” Jessie gasped, “You did it when we were arguing over if it needed crowns or not. You even tried to take the glue away from me.”

 

The twins dissolved into further arguing over who did who, causing Stanley and Carla to groan, pulling the twins apart the moment they got into fight mode. Stan holding Jessie back while Carla held onto James by his shoulders, the twelve-year olds needing a bit apart. 

 

“You two knock it off, or so help me you’ll be grounded for a month!” Carla raised her voice. Hearing their mother seemed to make the twins stop trying to go at each other, knowing they’re both in bigger trouble than before.

 

Stan takes a deep breath and collects himself before addressing the two, “Kids, all we asked was an honest answer, not a game of shifting blame onto the other.” Jessie and James frown when their dad kneels down to their level and gets straight with them. Stan continuing, “When I was a boy, I got in trouble more often than your uncle Stanford. A lot of trouble and the scars to prove it.” Stan couldn’t help to shift his eyes over to the mark on his right shoulder for but a moment before continuing, “I took the blame every time so my brother wouldn’t get the wrath my Pa delivered onto me. Which was cruel…. Called me a screw up and everything. I  **never** will treat you two the same way your gramps did to me, that I promise you two and your cousins. How about we get that glue out of your hair -- if we can without shaving your heads -- and fix the attraction together? What do ya both say?”

 

Jessie and James couldn’t agree more with their dad as the two gave him a hug, not wanting to disappoint him and their mom. Carla smiles to the scene. It had been years since Stan ever mentioned his father, the very man who kicked him out as a teen to fend for himself. However, Stan thanked whatever was in the sky that he has Carla to stay by his side and worked together as a team. Stan never thought he’d become a father himself until Jessie and James entered his and Carla’s life.  

 

It was almost hard to talk about Filbrick after so long for Stan, having disconnected contact ever since his mother and father divorced not long after he was kicked out. The biggest trouble Stan ever found himself in, next to the times where himself and Carla found themselves in trouble with crooks. Stan thought lightly that at least his mother wasn’t so strict with him and Stanford. However, even she couldn’t fix the damage that was done, entirely. 

 

“I’d rather not be bald, thank you very much. I worked hard to maintain this hairstyle, almost like Georgy Mike’s,” James remarks, hesitant to touch his hair. 

 

“It’ll grow back, James,” Jessie chuckles while walking with him to see who gets in the shower first. 

 

Carla smiles over to Stan, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder while kissing his cheek, praising him, “You handled that well, Stan.”

 

Stan smiled back at his wife as he picks up the broken attraction, “Thanks, Carla babe. Thank you for getting them to stop fighting,” he lets out a sigh, really hoping that their friendship won’t crumble apart like him and his brother did years ago, though eventually reconciling when the kids enter his life and Carla’s. Stan hopes his brother hasn’t gotten into too much trouble himself and that he found who he’s looking for on the other side of the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter being the second of four parts to this.


	3. Wild and Youthful (Youth)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When James and Jessie find a puppy, what does Stanley do about it?

_ Somewhere in Wyoming, 1978... _

  
  


“Sorry, kiddos, not gonna happen. I don’t know if we have the means to keep him,” Stan tells his six-year old twins, Jessie and James, the two holding up a black and tan german shepherd puppy, the welp looking nothing more than a month old. Like the puppy in front of him, the twins show pleading eyes, only moments before tears start to trail down their cheeks. Boy, does he know those looks as he made them himself. 

 

“Please, Daddy… we can take care of him,” James begs in a small voice. 

 

“Give him walkies with you and Momma,” Jessie adds innocently, boing her best to persuade her father. 

 

“Bathes, clean up his messes, and more,” James says with wide puppy-dog eyes. 

 

“Oh bless you two…” Carla cooed, kneeling down to pet the puppy, “he’s gonna need a bath too. I’m sure we can make room for one more.”

 

Stan thought back to when he begged his own parents to keep a stray cat as a kid. No matter how much him and Ford pleaded, their father utterly refused to have any at all animal in the apartment complex and pawn shop. It broke his young heart at the time, but he still fed the stray he called, Waffles, since the cat loved waffles in the ally before the animal died sometime after. 

 

How can Stan say no to his own kids; to deny them of something he wished he could have had? The feeling finally got to him the moment he took another look at his kids, the puppy, and his wife even was onboard with the idea. Reminded of the promise he made for himself to be a great parent to his kids. If a puppy will bring his twins happiness, then he wants to take it into account for their sakes. He didn’t want to admit it, but the puppy was warming up to the man. 

 

“Okay, the pup can stay, but we’re gonna teach him how to use the can; I don’t wanna see messes in the RV. Plus, he can make a good guard dog when he grows bigger.” Stan bends down to pet the puppy, only for the little guy to nip him on the finger and lick it, which made the young man smile that brought more of his youth back into him.

 

Both his kids cheered as the puppy scampers around, Carla standing up to give her husband a kiss on the cheek, proud of him for allowing the kids to keep the small animal. 

 

“His name’s gonna be Butch!” James announced with holding up the pup. 

 

“That’s a cool name, James, let’s go with that! And go play!” Jessie agreed with her twin brother as they run outside with the puppy on the grounds of the campsite they’re at. 

 

Even Stan and Carla couldn’t help but to partake in their children’s and Butch’s play with chasing them about, rolling on the grass, and taking a moment to gaze up at the clear sky with an eagle flying over head. It had been a great day for Stan and his growing family, the man hoping there will be more of them to come.

 

After the day was down and night came to, Stan decided to look through old photographs from his and his brother’s childhood in the album his mom gave to him before him and Carla left New Jersey with their twins, so carefree they were on the sandy shore of Glass Shard Beach and the adventures they had. He hopes his own twins will treat each other better as they grow older; to defend one another as he’d been teaching them. Of course, he wants to be there if the two were to fight each other where he can guide them. Most importantly, never place high expectations upon them -- that’s for certain. 

 

Stan smiles as he closed the album to go tell his children, “Good night, ya little gremlins.” He then pets the watchful puppy on the head, telling him, “You look after these two if either me or Carla are not there to help them, okay, Butch? And please don’t tear up my stuff.” The puppy barks lightly, seeming to have understood him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the third from four parts of this series.


	4. Taking Shelter (Safe)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having just been kicked out of his own home, Stanley Pines finds a place where he can rest and find peace in loving arms.

_ The McCorkle family apartment/flower shop, 1972... _

  
  


It had been a horrible night for a seventeen-year -- going on eighteen the following month -- old Stanley Pines, having been kicked out of his home by his father at eighteen. All because of a mistake that could have been fixed if he’d let his brother know sooner with his science project. He resists to rub the bruise on his elbow and cheek from the fall against the concrete sidewalk the moment he was pushed out the door by his abusive father.  

 

Thankfully, he knew of one place he could stay in the meantime; the only few that mattered: his girlfriend, Carla McCorkle, her parents, and the two resting infant twins, James and Jessie, in their shared crib. Where else could he go that wasn’t the streets? It was a much better living arrangement that his children stayed with their mother and her parents, rather than subject them to his father’s yelling and drama. Stanley had already endured his father’s insults thrown at him for being a teen father and how screwed up the kids will be later in life when they were born a week ago. The only person he couldn’t be mad at was his own mother, of whom he knows was giving Filbrick a great backlash for his actions. Stan couldn’t be entirely mad at his twin brother either, he had every right to be upset over such a screw up. 

 

Stan rubs the tears away from his red puffy eyes before he knocks on the door a few times until someone answered. To his lucky stars, it was Carla who answered and greeted. 

 

“Hey Stan…” Carla’s bright smile quickly forms a concerned frown when she gets a good look at her boyfriend’s broken-hearted face. She beckons him inside her home, “Come inside, Stanley and we can talk about all this. I just put the twins in their crib.”

 

“Thanks, Hotpants….” Stan spoke quietly as he moves inside with his duffle bag over his shoulder. 

 

Inside the apartment was quaint with earthy colors on the wallpaper and furniture that seems to make the whole living room pop, as did the kitchen and the bedrooms upstairs as they arrived through the flower shop. It was a great contrast to how his -- former -- home’s like in appearance. The scent of lavender filled the air, a calming smell that greets Stanley’s nostrils as he took a whiff. It was those kinds of flowery scents, besides those from the beach, that lets him know he’ll be safe.

 

The mother and father of Carla McCorkle, Camellia and Wesley, were pleasant enough folk, both having invested in creating a flower shop with the rise in popularity of floral arrangements. Wesley wore flared white pants with rose petals spotting the leggings and a blue and white shirt, black shoes, and his short hair being black in hue along with his short moustache. He was of Scottish descent. Camellia herself wore something that definitely fits the theme of the shop with a jumpsuit with camellia flowers adorning the wear with her long, curly auburn hair flowing freely. 

 

The moment Wesley and Camellia McCorkle heard Carla come back, it was the father who walked from in the dining room to ask his daughter what was going on. Though when the father sees Stanley with his daughter and the emotional state he was in -- of which they’ve seen quite a few times -- he immediately grew worried of what happened. 

 

“Oh my,” Wesley whispers to himself before turns to the kitchen, asking his wife, “Darling be a dear and fix up some tea. And a ice bag. Stanley’s here and something happened.” He clears his throat to give a warm greeting to the teenage boy, “Hello, Stanley, due make yourself comfortable.”

 

Stan simply nods with saying, “Thank you, Mr. M.” heading over to the purple couch on the shag carpeting, he lays his duffle bag on the floor and gets comfortable on the couch next to Carla. Funny, he was on a couch before all hell broke loose. Now, he doesn’t think he deserves to be on one as nice as his girlfriend’s parents. After what happened at home, he felt absolutely awful.

 

Carla places a gentle hand on Stan’s as she inquires, “Stanley what happened to you?” She glances down at the duffle bag she noticed him carry, “And the….”

 

“I’ll tell you everything, babe,” Stan turns to look at her and her beautiful hazel eyes. 

 

After he told her and her parents everything over tea, Camellia and Wesley were angry for what Filbrick did to Stanley. No child should ever deserve that kind of treatment. Stanley rests the ice bag on the bruises he got. 

 

“That’s how it happened and now I don’t have any other place than here to go to…. I don’t even know if I can even go to high school without seein’ my brother there. He hates me….” Stan laments with a frown, drinking his tea. It wasn’t often he drinked the stuff, being more used to Pitt Cola, but he drank it out of respect for Carla’s parents. He liked his sweetened with honey, so it’s almost like his favorite soda. 

 

“It’s horrible what happened, Stanley, but know you’re always welcomed here to stay. Carla and your children would appreciate--”

 

“WAAAAHHH!” cried the infant twins upstairs. 

 

Camellia chuckled a little, “Speaking of, I think they’d like to see you more anyways. We’ll figure things out in the coming days with what you can do.” She gets up from her chair and heads upstairs to get the crying twins. Carla was incredibly thankful her parents are around to help her and Stan out with the babies. Wesley and Camellia having been teen parents themselves when they had Carla. 

 

Wesley had the home telephone in his hands, dialing the number to the Pines family Pawn Shop, about to give a piece of his mind. The phone rings but no answer on the other line. He huffs and hangs up the phone, calming down when Camellia brought the infants with her in each arm to Stan and Carla. Stan holding Jessie while Carla holds James in their arms.

 

“It was only a diaper change they needed,” Camellia chirped, picking up the empty cups and taking them to the kitchen.

 

Stan puts a small grin on his face, holding his baby girl when he greets her, “Hey, Firecracker, how you doin’? Me? I had a rough night, but it’s better now that I’m here with you two and your mom and grandparents.” He smiles lightly over to Carla and James, definitely feeling much better now that he’s there with the family he managed to make for himself. For now, he felt uncertain as to what he’s going to do, but he knows now he can rely on Carla and her parents to help him through the rough patch in his young life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this is my last contribution for Stanuary with this weeks theme being Safe. I will warn that it does imply child abuse being involved, but there is family fluff that Stan sure needs. Hope you all enjoy this fanfiction journey and I’m glad to have taken part!

**Author's Note:**

> These are a collection of short stories I've done for stanuary 2018 over on tumblr that revolves around Stanley and the au I've set him in where he and Carla stayed together and made a life for themselves and their kids.


End file.
